Episode 1

Erica woke up from her nap stowed away in a crash couch. Her body ached from the odd, contorted position in which she had fallen asleep. She let out a long yawn and inspected the cabin around her. Her cabin. The ever present hum of the air recycler was a calming sound at this point in her journey. She felt a strange flutter in her stomach when she thought about the journey she and the rest of the ship’s inhabitants were on.

She swung her legs and let her feet touch the metallic floor. The coolness on her bare feet gave her system a bit of a shock and she almost recoiled back into the couch. Almost, but didn’t. She got up, she had to, she’d taken a nap because for the past few rotations she had been living off of bad caffeine, gruelling mundane office work and little to no sleep. That’s what you get for being a relatively lowly security officer on this ship. She’d been dealing with a spate of robberies - minor things: some machine parts here and there, nothing mission critical. Nothing worth the time of the actual detectives aboard. 

Truth be told, she didn’t mind at all, really. She was content being the one to take orders as opposed to the one making them. Would she sometimes voice a differing opinion only to be ignored? Sure. Would she sometimes wish that the higher-ups did what she suggested? Sure. Did she let it consume her and make her bitter? Nope. She knew her place and while she sometimes got things right with her thoughts on situations (when looking in hindsight) she was also very happy with not being the one to answer for things when they went sour. She’d had that job before; she didn’t want it again.

She strode over to her little cabin’s wash area and sprayed some recently recycled water on her face. The fact it used to be… other forms of water… did not bother her in the slightest, having grown up on an outpost on Ganymede. There the water was either recycled or purified - depending on the social strata you were lucky enough to live in. She rubbed her oily skin as clean as she could and then dried herself with a cloth. She did not need to shower, nor was it her allocated shower slot so she simply adjusted her pale blue jumpsuit and equipped her service issue utility belt, making sure to check the charge on her stun baton. In the two waking years aboard, she’d not needed to use it, but she liked to be sure just the same. Full charge, that was good. She slipped on her boots and was ready.

Erica flashed a brief “go get ‘em” smile to herself in the mirror and then swiped her hand to open her quarter’s hatch. The sound of bustling life erupted into the (until recently) soundproofed cabin. It was a pleasant soundscape; it meant life was going on as per normal. Or at least as normal as it could. She exited left and went on her way, her magnetic boots clanking on the grating that made up the floor of the hallway. The mags weren’t activated as there was no need but the clanking remained all the same. It did not bother most of the inhabitants anymore, they’d grown accustomed to the sound by then. Not to mention there was a large contingency of the population who grew up in low-g environments; magnetic boots were for them a staple.

Erica passed some of her neighbours and gave them a nod of acknowledgement or even a friendly wave to those she considered just more than acquaintances. There were some, but not a whole lot who fell into that category. Being a security officer on a long haul ark mission was not exactly a job that got you automatic friends. Erica understood this and begrudged no one for being a little weary of her and her fellow officers; in reality, no one had any hostility towards the Horizon-Sec officers. No one she knew anyway - and she’d met almost all the inhabitants.

Louis saw her as she entered the sector 4 mess hall. His face lit up and he gestured for her to come and sit with him. He was a tall man with a gaunt face but kind eyes. Erica counted him as one of two actual friends on this ship: him and Danis, an engineer in sector 1 who had the best bar stories she’d ever heard. Erica sidled up to Louis, she was not particularly hungry so she just sat there with him.

“Did you get some sleep at least?” Louis asked. He was concerned. Of course he was. Nurses were like that.

“Enough.”

“Good,” he said, then took a bite of his loaf.

“I’ve got an interview in a few minutes so I can’t stay,” said Erica, stealing a pea-like object from his plate. It was really just a protein ball of sorts. Tasted… okay. “But see you in sector 2 tonight? Tell Danis, will you?”

“Going to bust some moves this time?”

“Certainly going to watch you bust some moves, yeah,” Erica quipped back and hopped up again. She did not wait for his reply and headed on out the hall. She had to catch a transport tram to get her to the Horizon-Sec Command Centre in time for her interview. She was fit, but not fit enough to jog all the way to Sector 7 in the time she had. She hailed a tram (really a fancy little caged cart on tracks) and slipped in, buckling herself up so that the thick straps made an ‘x’ across her chest. Just as she was about to punch her destination in, Louis came hurrying out the mess hall down the way, he scanned for and then waved at Erica.

“I forgot I have a patient to check up on in Sector 6!” he shouted. “Wait up!”

Erica gave him a faux-evil grin and punched her tram to go. Louis’s face contorted into clear frustration as he saw her starting to leave without him.

“I’ll get you for this!” he shouted after her, mostly joking.

“Sure!” Erica shifted to face forward, grabbing hold of the bar of the buggy’s roll cage. She took a few moments to clear her head. She still had two interviews to do, this one coming up would help her isolate a more workable time frame, so she hoped - 

A loud groan blasted from everywhere and all at once the screams of thousands of people filled her ears as in an instant the world of the Horizon flew past her. The sudden g-force struck her body like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life and before she could grasp what was happening, she blacked out.